The replacement officials took a step backward this week in the NFL. After doing a more or less solid job in Week One, the NFL’s replacement officials did a mostly lousy job in Week Two. It’s probably not as bad as ESPN wants you to think it is but sub par none-the-less.
And the problem was less about any one particular blown call than it was a general sense that the officials weren’t in control of the game. The crucial personal foul penalty on Redskins receiver Josh Morgan for throwing the ball at Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan, for instance, was the correct call.
But the officials had permitted so much post-play pushing, shoving and taunting in that game that it felt arbitrary when they finally decided to call the penalty on Morgan just before what could have been a game-tying field ...